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OF A 



SPEECH OF MR. "RANDOLPH, 



RETRENCHMENT AND REFORM 



BELIVEKED IJf THE 



MOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATE* 



ON THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY, 1S23. 



WASHINGTON.: 

TR1NTED EV GJ'.EEN AXD JAKYIS 

1828. 



>— » 






To my Constituents, 

Whose confidence and love have impelled and sus- 
tained me under the effort of making it — I dedicate 

this Speech. 

JOHN RANDOLPH, of Roanofa 

February 29. 1828. 



In Exchange 

T nive; 
AUG 1 9 






/ 






SPEECH OF MR. RANDOLPH. 



fhe resolution of Mr. Chilton, of Kentucky, to retrench the expendi- 
tures of the General Government, being under consideration — 

Mr. Randolph rose and said: 

I cannot make the promise which the gentleman who has just taken his 
seat (Mr. Everett.) made at the outset of his address; but I will make 
a promise of a different nature, and one which, I trust, it will be in my 
powpr to perform — I shall not say with more good faith than the gentleman 
from Massachusetts, but more to the letter — ay, Sir, and more to the spi- 
rit, too. I shall not, as the gentleman said he would do, act in mere self- 
defence. I shall carry the war into Africa. Delenda eat Carthago! I shall 
not be content with merely parrying — no, Sir — if I can, so help me God, I 
will thrust also ; because my right arm is nerved by the cause of the People 
and of my country. I listened to the gentleman with pleasure — I mean 
to the general course of his remarks — with a single exception; and to that 
part of his speech I listened with the utmost loathing and disgust. But 
disgust is too feeble a term, I heard him, with horrour, introduce the case 
of the Queen of France* — and in answer to what? To a hand-bill — a pla- 
card — an electioneering firebrand. And in the presence of whom ? Of those 
who never ought to be present in a theatre where men contend for victory 
and empire. Sir, they have no more business there, than they have in a 
field of battle of another sort. Women, indeed, are wanted in the 
sampj but women of a very different description. What maiden — nay, 
what matron — could hear the gentleman, without covering her face with 
her hands, and rushing out of the House? But for some of the remarks of 
the gentleman from Massachusetts, in allusion to newspaper publications, 
I should have begun in at least as low a key and as temperate a mood as 
he did. To that key I will now pitch my voice, 

I have been absent from the House for several days. I requested my col- 
league [Mr. Alexander,] to state the cause of that absence, which he did. 
Yet even this could not be reported correctly. As this may be the last act 
•f publick duty which I shall be able to perform — at least during the present 
session — and as I have given up mvself a sacrifice to its performance, I re- 
spectfully ask the House to give their attention to what I have now to say. I 
understand that, during my absence, I have been replied to by various 
gentlemen, (some of whom I have not the honour to know by person,) on 
different sides of the House, in a manner which I do not doubt was per- 
fectly satisfactory, at least to the speakers themselves. 1 certainly do not 
wish to disturb their self-complacency: de minimis non curat, whether ol 
persons or of things. The gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Vance,] with that 
blunt plainness and candour which, I am told, belong to him, and which I 
admire in proportion as they are rare qualities in these time-serving days— 

* "The F»pvil hnnprff wffl net eat a v©man ."— Sii4Kspkahi 



I like him the b it rlyh*nestj — I hope he will take ne offenc 

the term, for I can assure hint thai none is intended — charged me, in mj ab- 
sence, (somy friends have informed me,) withwhatl believe be would not 

'• ind to which' I have no objection; but J 

must except to i 1 e authority on which he relied; for I protest against anj 
gentleman's producing, as proof of what 1 have, ai anytime, said, ;i news- 
r, or an) thing purporting I i be a R igister of Debates, unless 1 en- 
clorse it, ami becom for it : ana more espei ially remarks draw n 

{, ota the debates of anol tier b »l\ . w Inch, in regard to me, are particularlj 
unfaithful. I shall show to the House, not such matter as the gentleman 
from Massachusetts stirred, to the offence <>f every moral sense, <>f every 
moral being. 1 do n<>t pretend to impose my standard of delicacy and 
propriety upon the gentlcm m, who will no doubt measure by his own: dr. 
ffttstibu on .'"Hi: and i1 is not for me to interfere with the 

gentleman's tastes, whether in literature, morals, or religion. I sliall refer 
t.. a matter of recent notoriety that will test the correctness <>f these re- 

Fiorts. In the debate <m the motion of the gentleman from Smith Caro- 
ina, Mr. If \--mi i on, respecting a picture'of the battle of New-Orleans, 
I diil gt ite, as distim r i . as I c »uld articulate, that I had seen a monument 
•,l to the memon of Andre, the Britishspy, in Westminster A.bbeyj 
- mutilated — the head of General Washington, and arm, (I 
think, of \.m\ ■ ng been broken off : the General's, most probably, 
i)\ - »me Toi j boy, from the neighbouring s< hool of Westminster, and that 
ol \ ndi . ; • bj some Wliig boy, in retaliation. The name ol 

il nitton did not escape inj lips. I ; . indeed, of Hamilton; but it 

ol a living Hamilton — the gentleman from Smith Carolina. Hut. 
then, parliamentary does not permit ns t > speak of one another bj 

Now, Sir, lea i show you, on the same authority which was re- 
lied on bi the gentleman from Ohio — although [acknowledge that the ri 
ports ol that >t as 1 am concerned, have generally I 

r, than 1 have for a long time known them to be be- 
l am represented as saying that the monuments in Westmin- 
tvere mutilated in the same manner as the tombs of Hamilton 
.i id Washi i id been mutilated here. The word tomb neverescaped 

on that o - I »uld have been a palpable falsehood, 

i of ' Wiw »n? There is no such thing in this coun- 

. nor have I ird that a tomb has been erei ted to the memon ol 

; l [ but 1 y :ie\t thing we shall hear will be, that the 

Quarterly, or f w, comes out, and observes with a 

- • I the vote was the monument, so a gentle- 

man ' in Coi ress, built up a tomb for Wash- 

_•,., — , •• , ,,,,-.; i u tive'' 1 no where but in his eccen- 

ngton and of Hamilton might 

*. indeed, be liable 

to inju or from some invidious foreigner, but 

f no A i mutilate them. In the course ol 

anothei d it I rend red ton -••nth-man from New York, 

lities deserved — and God forbid 

nil cfuse to do justice to an adi ersarj 

— when I • use it is found int era in of as 

it. ^ may 1 never ■ mercj from 

niai I I all must look, if we hope forfoi 



5 

nebs hereafter. I said, thai: I would not, like him, pronounce ;i palinodia, 
neither am I now going (<> pronounce a palinodia in respect to the gentle- 
man from New York. I shall not take back one jot of praise bestowed 
upon him. With whatever views he introduced it. the doctrine has al- 
ways been nine — the strict subordination of the military to the civil au- 
thority — scripture is scripture, by whom, or tor whatever purpose it may 
be quoted. I know nothing of the private habits of that gentleman, [Mr. 
S^rbRRsJ but 1 know that lie has too much good taste not to agree with 
me, thai time may be much better spent than in reading the Documents 
piled up here. Yet, in the report of that debate, I was represented as 
saying, that, like the gentleman from New York. 1 did not — what? pro 
nounce a palinodia? No, not at all— but that, like him, 1 did not read 
the Documents. Sir, nobody reads the Documents — for this plain rea 
son, that no man can read them — and if he could, he could hardly be' 
worse employed. Sir, with a few exceptions, the Documents are printed 
that they ma\ be printed, not that they may be read. 

And now, Sir, comes another charge, about the miserable, oppressed in- 
habitants of Ireland. This subject has been mentioned to me, by no gen- 
tleman on the other side, except a member from Maryland — from the 
Eastern Shore of Maryland, [Mr. Kerb.,] who is, not only by the courtesy 
of this House, but in fact a gentleman. He, in Committee on the Rules 
and Orders of the House, expressed to me his astonishment, that what I 
said on that occasion, could have been so much misunderstood and mis 
represented — that he heard me most distinctly. I now call on any mem- 
ber who understood me differently, at the time, to rise in his place and say 
so. [Here Mr. R. paused for a reply. None being given, and some 
friends having said across the seats, that no member could, or would sav 
that he had understood Mr. R. as he had been misrepresented, Mr. II. 
went on.] Without meaning to plead to — that is, without meaning to ad- 
mit, the jurisdiction of the press, in the extent which it arrogates to itself. 
[ am perfectly sensible that no man is above publick opinion. God forbid 
that any man in this country shall ever be able to brave it This is what 
our u;reat adversary has, with characteristick audacity, attempted to do. 
sorely to his cost and that of his less bold compeer. I regret that au> 
ene should have supposed me capable of uttering such sentiments. So 
far from it, I have been the steady, firm, constant, and strenuous advo- 
cate, to the best of my poor ability, of the oppressed People of Ireland. 
And why? For the reason I stated on a former occasion: They fought oui 
battles. Sir. I have known and esteemed many of them. Some of them 
have been — they are dead — others are now living, among my warmest 
friends and best neighbours. In the course of a not uneventful life, I have 
seen many things, but I have yet to see that vara arts in hrris, (I have 
seen a black swan,) an Irish Tory. 1 have known twrirs of every descrip- 
tion. Yes. Sir, some even in Virginia — even we had a few of then' 
during the Revolution, but too leu to give us any trouble or alarm — but 1 
never have yet seen an Irish Tory, or the man who had seen one. Sir, I 
don't read the newspapers — I don't read gentlemen's speeches, and then 
come here to answer them. But I am extremely pleased, nay, flattered, 
in the highesl degree, at being told by mj friends, that the gentleman from 
Ohio attributed, m Ids speech, bo much to my efforts in bringing the Ad- 
ministratif n to its present lank and lean condition. The gentleman could 
not have pleased me better — 1 only fear. that, with all his bluntness 



• .'I ti ankness, the gentleman was not quite bum <-ie. and nraseulj adorning 
i in- with fillets and garlands, like the priests of (he sacrifice of yore, pre- 
\ii»iis to knocking me, and with me, the party whom he strives to wound 
through ni\ Bides, on the head. He was pleased to place me at the head. 
of what has been denominated the Opposition party in this House; but at 
its head, or that of any other party in this House, he will never find me, 
for reasons which I could state, but which are wholly unnecessary. Times 
are indeed changed with the gentleman and his friends, when they hold 
this language concerning me. But a little while ago, and the friends of 
the Administration, nay, the members of the Administration, affected to 
consider me as one of their firmest props. They could not, indeed, vote 
for me — they were men too nice in their principles for that: but, consider- 
ing tlic greai benefit \\ hich the) deri\ ed from my opposition, they could not 

••pi for the honour of the country,) regrel my re-election. Amiable ami 
excellent men! Hut theynoti sine to averv different gamut, [f any gen- 
tlenian will bring againsl me an\ allegation, from ,i clean and reputable 
source, I will do one of two tiling — ! will either deny it, or admit and 

ad it upon my view- and principles. Sir, it seems 1 committed n 
great off! in nol voting for the admission of the new States into 

the Union, and especially of Ohio. Yet, if the thing were to do ovei 
... 'i, 1 should act precisely in the same manner, and past experience 
would teach me I was right What were the new States? Vast deserts of 
woods, inhabited !>\ the Aborigines, to whom, if we come to the question 
ol i i it, they did of righl belong; and it was a question, whether Bound 
policy would dictate that we ought, by creating these States, to encourage 
spa; - lements, and thereby to weaken our frontier. I thought thi> 
was bad policy. Not that I am in favour of a very dense population. I 
am against the rabble of your greai cities, but I am equally opposed to 
having a land without inhabitants. But, Sir, 1 had other reasons — graui- 
nm manent — Does the gentleman from Ohio, with all his laudable preju- 
di( e and partiality towards his own State, think thai I. as a Virginian, 
feeling a1 It isl equal prejudice and partiality to my native land with that 
For hi- Statf, would lend my -auction to an act on the part 
ol Virginia, which jeverj instance of fatuity and folly extant in the 

histor) of nations? \\ hy, sir. the Knight id' I. a Nfancha himself, or pooi 
old Lear in the play, never wasguiltj ol a grosser acl of fatuity than was 
the State ol Virginia, when she committed that suicidal deed — the surren- 
dering of her immense territory beyond the river Ohio, upon the express 
dition "t excluding her own citizens from it- benefit, when the country, 
yielded l"i the common good of the confederacy Bhould come to be - ( -t 
tied. Ves, Sir, ii was an a., of suicide — of political suicide — the effects 
n| which she ha- ifli. ami will continue to feci, so long as she has any 
political ■ it ail. This was one of those amiable ami philanthro- 

-latum, which, however good in point of intention, lead te 
-non- and ruinous consequences, tan the gentleman from 
1) mceive that I. a \ rginian, could further this cut-threat policy? 

I thought the Ohio a well if lined natural boundary, and that we ought not 
to weaken by extending out frontier. The late war verified un foresight. 
VV] -in have I injured? The native savages and the trees, or the States 
that have been di heir population to fill out Ohio? I offered 

no wro 15 to the People ol I 1: for there were then none to injure. They have 
"• have been born Bince. This was the "'.cad and front 



•^l my oft'ending," and, if the gentleman has his apparatus ready, I am pre 
pared to undergo any form of execution which his humanity will allow him 
to inflict, or which even his justice may award. 

Smarting under the injurious election of a President against the will ol 
the people, bv the votes of Louisiana and Missouri balancing those of 
Pennsylvania and Virginia in this House, I spoke of ourselves as the only 
people so overwise as to acquire provinces, not that we might govern 
them, but that they might give law to us. 

And, Sir, I ha% e always held and shall for ever hold it to be the height of 
injustice, (and of folly too, on the part of the old States,) that 30 or 40,000 
persons, whoso long as they remained in Pennsylvania or Virginia, were 
represented in the Senate, only as the rest of the Pennsylvanians and 
Virginians, should, bv emigrating to one of the geographical diagrams be- 
yond the Ohio or the Mississippi, acquire, ipso facto, an equipollent vote 
in the other House of Congress, with the millions that they left behind at 
home. In case of the old States, necessity gave this privilege to Rhode 
Island, &.c. ; but here it was a gratuitous boon, at the expense of the origi- 
nal members of the confederacy — not called for by justice or equitv. 

Sir, do not understand me as wishing to establish injurious, or degrad- 
ing distinctions between the old and the new States, to the disadvantage of 
these last. Some such already exist, which 1 would willingly do away. 
No, Sir, my objection was to the admission of such States (whether south 
or north of the Ohio, east or west of the Mississippi,) into the Union, and, 
by consequence, to a full participation of power in the Senate with the 
oldest and largest members of the confederacy; before they had acquired a 
sufficient population that might entitle them to it; and before that popula- 
tion had settled down into that degree of consistency and assimilation, 
which is necessary to the formation of a body politic. The rapidity 
with which these new States till up, would have retarded their full parti- 
cipation in the power of their co-states but a very short time. And in 
that short interval the safety of the other States (witness the vote of Mis 
souri for President.) required such a precaution on their part. If I had 
been an emigrant myself to one of these new States — and I have near 
and dear connexions in some of them — I could not have murmured against 
the denial to forty or fifty thousand new r settlers (although 1 had been one 
of them) of a voice in the Senate potential as New York's, with a mil- 
lion and a half of people. 

The gentleman from Massachusetts cannot expect that I shall follow him 
through his elaborate detail of the diplomatic expenses of this Government, 
with which he came prepared. The House, however, will permit me 
to observe, that there was an hiatus — valde df/Iendus, 1 do not doubt, 
but certainly not deeply lamented by me; a hiatus which embraces 
the whole period of the administration of Mr. Jefferson. I am not going 
into the question of these expenses; I will stir no such matter: de^ 
mands which have dogged the doors of the treasury so long and so per- 
sevenngly as that they have been at length allowed, some from motives 
of policy, others to get rid of importunate and sturdy beggars — al- 
though they were disallowed under Mr. Jefferson's administration. But, 
Sir, it every claim that gets through this House, or is allowed bv this 
Government, after years of importunity, (some of them of thirty years 
standing,) is for that reason considered by the gentleman as a just claim, 
and fit to be drawn into precedent, my notions of justice and of sound 
precedent differ greatly from his. I, toft, am a^ much opposed as he 



;,o to what is truli called the prodigality oi parsimony. i 
mail thinks thai tin- salaries of inn foreign Ministers are too low, and there- 
fore, thej must !»• eked out by these allowances from the conting 
fund — i. ut Hi' what is called the Bet pel service money. The gentleman i* 
• to the existence of such a fund. It was appointed, and perhaps 
properly, — lot- Washington was to be the first charged with it? disburse 
ment. Hut oar early Presidents always made it a point <>t honour 
to return this fund untouched. They said to the nation, you tm.fi 
me w i tli your purse: I ha\ e had no occasion to use it ; here it i- — count the 
money; thei • - much by tale and a? much by weight, a- I received 
from you — hut was it everdream'd thai Buch a fund was to |> ( - pu1 into the 
hands of a President of the United States, to furnish him with the meai 
rewarding his favourites? No. sir: it wastopaj those waiters and cham- 
ip maids, and eves-droppers, and parasites, and panders, that the gentle- 
man told US of, on the oiher side of the water — and there it might he all v< i v 
right and proper — but not here; because we Hatter ourselves that (he 

I - country is such as to save* tfs from any such d< 

sity. No gentleman would understand him -■ king of the sums which 
had been placed at th< I of different Presidents, to a vasl amount. 

the purpose of negotiating with the Barbary Powers, &c hut of thai 
amount Bet apart, ami generally known, a- rvict money. Mr. 

i -on used a -mail portion of this fund, one year, the last id' hi- ad- 
ministration, to |'.i\ some Expense in relation to Bun's conspiracy, which 
w.i- not allowed at the Treasury. 

Will regard to the old billiard table, which is said to havi - r Borne 

fiftj dollars, it is a Bubjecl thai 1 Bhould never have mentioned. 1 consider 

-a healthy, manly, rational mode of exercise, when the weather 

confine us within doors. 1 >hall certainly never join in any i 

oi clamour against it. 1 look upon it as a suitable piece of furniture m 

house oi anj gentleman who can afford it. where it i- allowed by law. as 

n i- here ami throughout the State "t Maryland, as well ;.- many other 

It i- a lit BUbjecl for taxation, hut I should he SOTTJ if we 

were to : be that manly and innocent amusement. 4 If 1 have an\ 

objection to that item, it is that smh a pitiful article should have been 

_ it. I would have given him one thai COSl live hundred dollar^, and 
1 would have voted the appropriation with cheerfulness. Nl v objection to 
-u, h a i harge i-. 'hat \\ i- a shabby affair, and look- too much like a sneak- 
attempt to propitiate, l>\ the cheapness of the thin:., popular displea- 
; attempt to keep the thins oul of sight, only makes ii:<' matter 
• till • I do not charge the gentleman from North Carolina with any 

. hut this - i as t<> me to be too b matter. 1 would 

Striki :ne. 

Th< leinan limn M — achusel - that Franklin received a 

"i than Mr. Vdams did, ami other Ministers of t: 

I did, Sir, and what v. a- the an-wer which that -hrewd 

and . :< i poor Richard had always an eye to the 

main chance, when his accounts were scrutinized into, and his receipts 
wen 'I exorbitant? It was this, Sir; "Thou -halt not muzzle the 

leth out tin- corn.** The \ei\ an-wer that I myself gave in 

Mi , in Dublin, to a squireen ami an agent, lor a oescrip- 

- of the plagues of Ireland, ht Mi-- Edgeworth — 

1 Bee A \ 



delightful, ingenious, charming, sensible, witty, inimitable, though noi 
ununitated Miss Edgeworth. When describing the misery of the South 
and West of Ireland, that I had lately travelled over, I was asked, "And 
what would you do, pray, Sir, for the relief of Ireland?" with an air that 
none but Miss Edgeworth can describe, and that no one that has not been 
in Ireland can conceive. My reply was, " I would unmuzzle the ox that 
treadeth out the corn;" and I had like to have got myself into a sad scrape by 
it; as any one who has been in Ireland will readily understand. Yes, Sir. 
I was disposed to give to the houseless, naked, shivering, half-starved Irish 
labourer, something like a fair portion of the product of his toil, of the pro- 
duce of the land on which he breathes, but does not live; to put victuals into 
his stomach, clothes upon his back, and something like a house over hi? 
head, instead of the wretched pig-sty, that is now his only habitation — shel- 
ter it is none; and this was just the last remedy that an Irish agent, or 
middle man, or tythc-proctor, or absentee, would prescribe or submit to. 

But to return. " These salaries are too small. " I cannot agree with 
the gentleman. There is one touchstone of such a question — it is the 
avidity with which those situations are sought — I will not say by members 
of this House — we are hardly deemed of sufficient rank to fill them. 
So long as these foreign missions are sought with avidity — so long as mem- 
bers of Congress, and not of this House only, or chiefly, will bow, and 
cringe, and duck, and fawn, and get out of the way at a pinching vote, or 
lend a helping hand at a pinching vote, to obtain these places, I never will 
consent to enlarge the salary attached to them. Small as the gentleman 
tells us those salaries are, I will take it on me to say, that they are three 
times as great, as they are now managed, as the nett proceeds of his estate, 
made by any planter on the Roanoke. But, then, we are told that they 
live at St. Petersburgh and London, and that living there is very 
expensive. Well, Sir, who sent them there? Who pressed them to 
go there? Were they impressed like D'Auterive's slave? Were they 
taken by a press-gang, on Tower hill, knocked down, handcuffed, chuck- 
ed on board of a tender, and told that they must take the pay and 
rations which his Majesty was pleased to allow? No such thing, Sir. 
I will now quit this subject, and say only this, that our Minister, (Mr, 
Adams,) was paid for a constructive journey — that, I think, is the phrase, 
which means neither more nor less than a journey which was never per- 
formed. * 

[Here Mr. Everett made a g-eshire of dissent.] 

The gentleman shakes his head. Sir, we shall see more of this hereaf- 
ter, but I will reason only hypothetically. If the gentleman in question, 
while he remained at St. Petersburgh, could make the journey imputed to 
him, it beats the famous journey from Mexico to Tacubaya, as far as 
some distance, however small, exceeds no distance whatsoever. If a 

fentleman from Washington goes to Georgetown, or to Alexandria, yes, 
ir, or to Bladensburg, I will acknowledge that he performs, at least in 
some sense, a sort of journey. But not if he remains in this City, and 
never stirs out of it. However, I will not now press this matter farther — 
others will do more justice to it — de minimis >wji curat. 

Paulo major a canamus: There was one remark, which I took down 
while the gentleman was Bpeaking, and which I cannot pass over. Mho 
that gentleman was, described by the gentleman from Massachusetts, who 
proposed to him that, if he would move to raise these salaries, that gen- 



10 

U email would join with him and Buppori him, 1 cannol conjecture 01 
vine. Be be who he may, I w ill venture to say thus much: !!<■ is »om< 
gentleman who expects to be sent upon s< lission himself, and. with 

great forecast ana prud - calculating to throw upon the pre- 

sent Administratio . befon 11 the odium of the ■ -■ 

ry which he hoped to finger. 1 am disposed to b< on »re just to the 
gentleman and to the Administration, b - i believe thai he will get 
full as mu< h as be may desen e; and the} have full a> much \\ eight as 1 ej 
can i arry, without adding 1i» it am tl ei feather. 

I am afraid thai I may be chai th some want of continuity, but 

• 1 have to say is at leasl as relevant, ay, and a- pertinent, too, to 
the subject before tl e ii luse, as the hand-bill which the gentleman read, 
till hia delicacy • ' ; permit him to read no farther, I I must 

I dit that lie had already gone so far, that there was no ultima TTiult 

beyond. Sir, the gentleman might have spared himself this last exertion 
of hia delicacy, and even have read I > the end. There could be nothing 
more gross b< hind, than what we had already heard, and were to hear, in 
i hi- case of the ill-fated Queen of Franco. The gentleman, with much 
gravity, with some dexterity, and with great plausibility, but against cer 
1 in principles which 1 have held in this House, ab ovo, and which I shall 
nue i" hold, usqut ad mul<i. till 1 leave the f< -'. poke of the 
headlong commencement of the Opposition, before the Administration 
could give reasonable cause of discontent. I have now no palinodia t<> 
sing or to chant upon that subject. 1 drew from that fountain which 
never failed an observing and sagacious man. and which', even the sim- 
ple and inexperienced and [among the rest) may drink at — it is uature 
and human life. 1 saw distinctly, from the beginning, that, if we | 
milted this administration — if we listened to those who cried to u^ "wait, 
wait, there i> a lion in the path," (and, Sir, there always is a lion in 
the path, to the sluggard and the dastard,) and which cry was 
conded, no doubt, by mam who wished to know how the land lay before 
tlu-v ran foe a port — on which side victory would incline, before the) 

ided their horn of trium If we had thus waited, the situation 

ol the country would have been ven different from what it is now. Sir, 
there was a great race to be run — if you will permit i d'vw an illus- 

tration from a Sporl to which 1 have been much addicted— one in which 
all the gentlem sn in Virginia, when «f had gentlemen in Virginia, <lc- 
lighted, ami of which I am vet \er\ fond — 1 mean from the turf — and it 
must be lost, or won, as the race in this countrj was won — 1 

mean the race on Lqng Island, which I saw, and that was by running 
everj inch of I md — h-. ,. -i -.ore — b\ following the policj 

of Purdy. Purdy, sir. was a man of sound Bense, and practical know 
ledge — a man of common Bense, I mean, and worth a thousand of your 
old ami practised statesmen, and "premature* 1 gentlemen, who never ar- 
rive atmaturitj — and who, meaning to side with the next Administration 
in case of our Buccess, were nevertheless resolved to get all they could, 
in the meantime, out of thi-. Sir, to one of these trimming gentry, it is 
worse than death to force him to take sides In-fore a clear indication ol 
d '"'ii 1 ■ the i r\ t>t' its being •• premature" to >tir the question 
«>l the next Pi .-,. If we had set oil* one session later. 

we should l ' ground enough left to run upon, to overtake, and 

pass, "and beat , | \ passed the winning post, and 

pocketed tl Such would havebeent] Ifect, if we bud do- 



11 

laved our push, and I know no one who would have enjoyed 1he result, 
.ind chuckled a our folly with more an one of these same 

old and practised s | " said which our re- 

porter did nol hear and to which M . Eveb n wag understood to reply, 
thai he had not stated ir as his s mtinv rit, but as a fa< t. | I beg the gen- 
tlemai 's pardon: 1 iw;- was misrepresented by him, and I never will 
misrepresent him, unless 1 misunderstand him. But, I wonder il nevei 

; . ( .,i t utleman from Massachusetts whal could be the cause 

such a hue and < n should be raised against an Administration so i 

able, (permit me in this, however, to differ from the gentleman ; t/< usti- 

what. ! say, could have been the cause whj Actseon and all 

I • oiinds, or, rather, why the dogs of warwere p against this Wise 

and ableand virtuous and loving Administration; these patti rns ol poli- 

friendship and consistency; and have continued to' pursue them, till 

lie pantii » and gasping for breath on the highway — until thej real- 
the beautiful tabic of the hare and many friends. The Cause of all 
tins is to be found in the manner in which they came info power — the cause 
of this "premature" opposition lies there, and there mainly. I would 
defy all the public presses in the world to have brought them to this pas . 
had there not been a taint of original sin in their body-politic, and 
which cleaves to them even as the sin of our first parents taints our fallen 
nature and cleaveth to us all. The gentleman refers to those who com- 
pose the pans called the Opposition, and says, it is formed of very discor- 
dant materials. True, Sir: but what are the materials of the party which 
uplmldsihe Administration? Nay, of the Administration itself? Are they 

xtly homogeneous? I know one of them — who lias been raised to a 
higher station than most men in this country— Was that because he op- 

1. or because he espoused the election of the present Chief Magis- 
trate? 

Let m k the gentleman from Massachusetts, what could cause 

the old Republican party in New England— the worthy successors ol 
John Langdon — to be now found acting with us? They know— hut 
some in this House do not know— they know that the Southern inte 
is as much their ally, in protecting them against an overweening oligar- 
chy at home, as England is the natural ally of Porti ;ainst the pow- 
er of Spain and France: ami though they left us for a time, yet now, ap- 
prehending danger, and seeing through the artifices of their betrayer, they 
have returned to us, their old, natural, and approved allii Have 
not the Administration, as well as the Opposition, ways and means and 
funds in their hands to obtain influence and buy success? Have they not 
the whole of the great mass of patronage in their ham!-? But the 
gentleman says, that, so far from taking care of their adherents, 1 
have been too liberal in bestowing this upon their enemies. But it is 
easy to account for this. An ancienl apophthegm tells us that it 
better To judge between two of your enemies than between two of your 

ids. In the one case you are almost sure, by your decision, to make 
a friend, and in the other,' to lose one. Now. Sir. our able and pi 

ismen know, that, by giving a loaf and a fish to an enemy. thei a 
a friend, when, by giving them to one of their friends, they might dis- 
oblige another, who might think his claims disparaged— ana that, Sir, is 
the '.viiii' - tof their n ig their friends. 

Permit me, Sir, again to ask, how comes it. that this Administration ire 
brought into their present \cr, i ui ous and unprecedented predicament ? 
How happens it, that they alone, of all the administrations which : 



LI 

been in this country, lind themselves in the minority in each House ot 
Congress; "palsied by the will of their constituents:" when the very worst 
of their predecessors kept a majority till midnight on the 3d or 4th 
of March, whichever you please to call it? Ay, Sir, under the adminis- 
tration to which 1 allude there were none of these compunctious visit- 
ings of nature at the attacks made on private character. We had no 
chapter of lamentation's, then, on the ravaging and desolating war on 
the fair fame of all the wise and virtuous, and good, of our land. The 
notorious Peter Porcupine, since even better known as William Cobbet, 
was the especial protege of that Administration. I heard them say, 1 
do not mean the head of that Administration] but one of its leader.-, that 
he was the greatest man in the world: and 1 do not know that, in 
point of sheer natural endowment, he was bo very far wirong. Yes, sir, it 
was that Very Cobbet, who, if the late publications may be trusted, now 
says that Mr. Adams has fifteen hundred slaves in Virginia. Was 
there any slander too vile, too base for thai man to fabricate ? I remem- 
ber well the nick-names under which we passed — yes, Sir, I can proudly 
say ere, although the humblest in the ranks: Mr. Gallatin was Citotkm 
Guillotine, with le petit fenetre national, a,t his back. The caricature, 
then, as well as now, constituted no small part of the munitions of politi- 
cal war. The pencil and the graver (they had no want of tools of any sort) 
lent their aid to the pen and the ballad and the military band of musick. 
" Down with the French!" (that is, the best men of our country . was the 
cry. M v excellent and able colleague, Mr. Nicholas — oneof the purest and 
most pious of men, who afterwards removed to the State of New York, and 
was a model of Republican virtue and simplicity that might ha\ eadorned the 
it days of SpartaorofRome — he, sir. having the misfortune to lose an eye, 
was held up to ridicule as Polyphemus. ' You are shocked at this, Sir; but let 
me tell vmi that it was only a little innocent, harmless, federal wit — and 
the author was the especial protege of "Government" and its adherents. 
All chuckled over the Porcupine. To thai partj the present incumbenl 
then belonged — and another member of thi> pure Administration : and 
these two sedition-law, black-cockade heroes, are recommended bv the 
• V.nti-Jackson Convention," to Virginia, for her President and Vice- 
President! They have not even the merit of an early conversion. 
They are true Swiss of State — point cPargent, point dt Suisse. \\\ 
venerable friend from North Carolina, was Momsieub Ma^on, with a 
cedilla under the c, to mark him the more for a Frenchman. [ forgel 
the cognomen of the learned gentleman from Louisiana, QM r. Lrvn 

| I know that he was never spared. 1 remember well my own: I wish. 
S i. n was applicable now, for I was then a boy. Every sanctuary was 

• i! aisn v ribed as Citibxh Nicolax. Gen Suropter, of South Carolina, 

R volution] coven d with honourable wounds and tear*] was, by some 
of the myrmidons <>t" tin- Administration, forced from his seat in the Ciacoa, com- 
p ll .1 to stand up, his hat taken from his h< ad, and his hands forcibly made to clap, 
when Mr. Adams entered the Theatre, and "Hah Coiuxbia!" was struck up by 
the band. Th stern old Republican \*ns thus involuntarily compelled to join in 
tin in ■ • idol of the daw. fteyetlrn id, I hope, this mention of him 

bj in old friend. 

M\ venerable friend, Mr. Ifacon, told me within twenty-four hours past, that th- 
'. i .i- in his life that he ey er dr w a knife, was in the plaj -house, when our party, 
(myself especially,) was insulted bj the military. 

The) used to plaj the Rogue's March under the windows of the house where lie and 
Nicholas and Gallat n lodged! So much for rm Ri u n oi reason! as H " 
• ili- Republicans of that daj 






13 

then invaded. A* to Mr. Jefferson, every epithet of vituperation was 
exhausted upon him. He was an Atheist, a Frenchman; we were all Athe- 
ists and Traitors: our names and cause associated with the Cannibals aud 
Cannibalism of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and with all the atrocities, the 
most atrocious and revolting of which has this day been presented to the 
House by the chaste imagination of the gentleman from Massachusetts. ITes, 
Sir, then, as now, a group of horrours was pressed upon the public!; imagina- 
tion, to prop the si;ikiii£ cause of adesperate Administration. Religion and 
order were to be subverted; the National Debt to be sponged ; and the 
Country to be drenched in its best blood by Mr. Jefferson and his Jacobin 
adherents. Even good men, and not unwise men, were brought to believe 
this. Mr. Jefferson was elected ; and we know what followed. But this, 
it may be said, was not done by our own people; it was done by for- 
eign hirelings, mercenaries. Sir, it is not only of this description of per- 
sons that I speak. It was done in the glorious days of the Sedition Law 
and the black cockade, when we found in General Shee and his Legion, 
protection against the Praetorian bands of the Administration. These 
brave fellows were many of them Irish or German, and most of them oi 
Irish or German parentage, chiefly from the Northern Liberties, then the 
stronghold of Republicanism ; and, therefore, branded with the opprobri- 
ous name of the Fauxboug St. Antoine, the most Jacobin quarter of Paris. 

At the very time that the act noted by the gentleman from Massa- 
chusetts, was passed, (May 1800,) when Professor Cooper was escorted 
to jail, a victim of the Sedition Law, the New York election, then, as of 
late, runs; the knell of the departing Administration. Sir, when the jjeu- 
tleman favoured us with his opinion of the present stupendous Administra- 
tion, I imagine he drew it from a comparison with some of the Administra- 
tions which preceded it In comparison with some of these, even this 
Administration is great: for we have seen the least of all possible things 
— the poorest of all poor creatures that ever was manufactured into °a 
Head of a Department, (and that's a bold word.) a member of a former Ad- 
ministration — almost a satire on the name. This personage, as I have 
v.TY lately learned, in imitation of another great man from the same 
State, took some liberties, in publick, with my name, when he had the At- 
lantic for a barrier, the summer before last. Like his great friend, his 
courage shows itself three thousand miles off. It is in 'the ratio of the 
square of the distance of his adversary. Sir, I should like to have seen 
how he would have looked, if, on finishing his harangue, he had found me 
at his elbow. I think I can conceive how he would nave/eft. ' 

Sir, 1 have much to say, which neither my own weakness, nor mv re- 
gard to the politeness of 'this House, w ill permit me now to say. As f have 
exonerated the principal in that weighty affair of the billiard-table, I also 
exonerate him and his Lieutenant from every charge of collusion — in the 
firs! instance; and, if it is in order, I will state the reasons for my opinion. 
When the alliance was first patched up between the two great leaders of 
the East and >Ve>t. neither of the high contracting parties had the promo- 
don of the present incumbent at all in view. Sir, I speak knowingly as to 
one of these parties, and with the highesl decree of moral probability of 
the other.t Can it be necessary ihat I prove this ? The thing proves itself 

' " Mr. C. very humorously, and it is raid very closely, mimicked Mr. Randolph, 
in quoting some parts of Mr. R.»s gpeech." — Salem Otmerwr •■ rare Ben!" 
• S Appendix--- Note B 



14 

Theobjecl was to bring in one of the parties to the compact, whom tk< 
Constitution subsequently excluded!) and, .it" course, to provide for the 
other. Agentfeman, then of this H - , was the candidate, who, to the last 
hour, lanya longing, altho »h not lingering look, v. ith outstretch- 

ed ie( k, towards Louisiana — -jugtuo qttaesita negatur — to dis :over wheth- 
er or not he should be one upon thi Sir, i' is impossible that he could, 
in the first, instance* liave looked to the elevatioB of another, or have de- 
signed to promote the views of any man, but in subserviency to his own. 
Sir, commo - - it. But, Sir, a!' ese calcu itions, hewevei 
skilful, and D ioivh >uld lot made better, utterly failed. Mr. 
Crawford mosl lately, and uni i'\. I confess, refused to die. 
It wascertainly very dis ibliging in him. I saw him before I went abroad, 
and 1 thoughts m hundred to one that he could not survive the Sum- 
mer: he was then dead to every pui - publick or private. Louisiana 
refused to vote as obstinately as r< Fused t< die: and so the 

'Ionian was excluded. It was then that Mr. Adam's was first taken 

up. as a.pia alter, which we pla of the South translate, ;• hand plant. 

Sir, 1 have a right to ; 1 had .i long while before an interview with 

the very great man; but not on that mb no, Sir — it was about busi- 

- of this Hous< — and he so farde9 . ei I should rathei sav of so 

very great a man, condescended, as to electioneer even with me. He 
tome, among other matters, "if you of ; - • ithwill giveusofthe West 
any other man than John Quincy Adam- for President, we will support 
him." Let any man deny thi> who dare — but remember, he then c\- 

tedtobea< andidatebefore the House hiras If. " If you will give us any 
other man !"* Sir. 'he gentleman in question can have no disposition to i 
it. It was at a time when he and the present incumbent were publickly 
pitted against each other, and Mr. Adam- had crowed defiance, and clap- 
ped his wings against the Cock of Kentucky. Sir, I know this rong 
mode of expression. I did not take it literally. 1 thought I understood 
the meaning to be that Virginia, by her strenuous support of Mr. Crawford, 
would further the success of Mr. Adams. "Any other man, Sir, besides 
John Quincy Adams." Now, as neither Mr. Crawford nor General Jack- 
son, in the end, proved to be "any other man. " it follows clearly who any 
other man was, viz: one other man — id est., myself, as a gentleman once 
said in this House) "we will support him." But, Sir, as soon as this < 
met was out of the question, we of the South lost all our influence, and 
" we of the West " gave us of the South thi- % civ John Quincy \d 
for President, andreceived from him the very office, which. being*neld 
l>\ him, we of theWesI assigned as the cause of our support, considering 
it to be a Borl of reversionan interest in the Presidency. See the lettei 
to Mr. F. Brooke.) [twas, indeed, u ratsbane in our mouth," but we swal- 
lowed the arseni< .' 

* It hat been suggested t>> me since tlic :. love was spoki n, bj one whoouglit to 
know a good deal oi N I tc politicks, md to whom it occiut d while I was making 
this development, and in M \ .who could not be 

blind to tlx game that ing between Mr. C. and M W , caused the l 

which Mr Crawford New York, to . then no longer the most 

idable opponent, for the expn m purp M I j from the House. 

bj ensuring Mr. Crawford's return. Thus, th< ' '. M . 

hadl - v. it'.i Mr. A., in quital for th< >n'i of Mr. ('• and his friends, 

I 

R i . thing .ii Molien I ring this ( on 9capinor 

v, , . is? 



15 

Sir, a powerful party in New England waa equally opposed to Mi. 
Vdams; the high Federal party, or the Kssex. Junto, bo called — all the 
successors of the George Cabots, and Caleb Strongs, and Stephen Hrg 
ginsons, — 1 should rather say their representatives, and all their Burvii 
in§ coadjutors, — were against him, with one exception, and that was an 
honest man, of whom ii was said in this House, that he ought to desire no 
other epitaph but that which might truly he-inscribed to his tomb-~*'Here 
lies the man who was honoured by the friendship of Washington, and 
the enmity of his successor." Sir, who persecuted trie name of Hamilton 
while living, and followed him be; »nd the grave ? The father and the son. 
Who were the persecutors of Fisher Ann-, whose very grave was haunt 
ed, as if by vampyres r Both father and -on. Mho attempted to libel the 
present Chief Justice, and procure his impeachment — making the seat of 
John Smith, of Ohio, the peg to hang the impeachment on? The son. 1. 
as one of the grand jury, anamycollea .G -.hnkviv' were called upon 

bv the chairman of the Committee of the Senate, in Smith's case, (Mr. 
Vdams,) to testify in that case. Sir. do you remember a Committee raised 
at the same time in this House, to inquire whether the failure of Burr's 
prosecution grew out of -the evidence, the law, or the administration of 
the law?" For my sins, 1 suppt se, 1 was put upon thai Committee. The 
plain object was, the impeachment of the Judge who presided on the trial. 
This was one of the early oblations (the fust was the writ of habeas corpus) 
of the present incumbent on the altar of his new political church. "\\ ho 
accused his former Federal associates in New England of a traitorous con 
Spiracy with the British authorities in Canada, to dismember the Union r 
The present incumbent. Yet ail is forgiven him — Hamilton, Ames, Mar- 
shall, themselves accused of treason — all is forgiven : and these men, with 
one exception, now support him ; and for what ? 

Sir, 1 will take the letter to the President of the Conn of Ap- 
peals in Virginia — and on that letter, and on facts which are notorious 
as the sun at noonday, it must be established that there was a collusion. 
and a corrupt collusion, between the principals in this affair. I do not 
say the agreement was a written or even a verbal one — I know that the 
language of the poet is true — that men, who ••meet to do a damned dee.!." 
cannot bring even themselves to speak of it in distinct terms — they can- 
not call a spade a spad< — but eke out their unholy purpose with dark 
hints, and inuendoes, and signs, and shrugs', where more i> meant than 
meets the ear. Sir, this person waswillingto take any man who w< 

ire the end that he had in view. He takes office under Mr. Adams, 
and that very office too. which had been declared to be in the line of safe 
precedents — that vei v office which decided his preference of Mr. Adams. 
Sir, are we children ? Are we babies? Can't we make out Apple-pie, 
without spelling and putting the letters together — A. p. ap, p. I, e, pie. 
ap-ple, p. i, e. pie, apple-pie ? Sir, the fact can never be got over, and 
it is this fact which alone could make this Admit Dck and lot 

• James M. Garjtmt, Esq. of the county of E v ia, amemberof th «• 

Jury, and also of Congr ss during Mr. Jefferson' on. Our frier • 

comni. need soon after Be took his seal in Congress, and has continued unintemipti d 
by a single moment of coolness, or alienation, during five and twenty years, and 
trying times, political and otherwise. 1 take a pride in naming this g 
among my steady, uniform, and unwavering friends. In Congress he i said, an 

unwise thing, or gave a bad \"-.-. He has kept the faith from IT'.' 1 .', wh :n he sup 
ported tli.' doctrini •; of ". - R r ' ma I' tit that s< ission of the Virginia 

Iss mhlv, of which he was •.» member 1' 18'io, and left ' : 

March 4, 1809. 



10 

to ita base, in spite of the indiscretion, (to say no worse,) in spite ol 
all the indiscretions of its adversaries. For, Sir, there never wis a man 

who had so much cause as General Jack-on has had to Bay, *■ Bave me From 
my friends and I will take care of my enemies." Yes, Sir, hecouid take 
care of his enemies — from them he never feared danger; but not of I s 
friends — at least of some, whose vanity Iras prompted them to couple I 
bscure names with his — and it is because he did take care of hie 
emies, who were his country's enemies, and for other reasons, whi I 
could slate, that his cause is now espoused by that grateful country. " I 
General Jackson is no statesman.' 1 Sir. I deny that there is any insta-i 
record, in history, of a man not having military capacity being at the « ead 
of any Government with advantage to that Government, and with credit 
to himself. There i< a great mistake on this subject. It is not those 
talents which enable a man to writ j books and make speeches, that qualify 
him to preside over a Government. The wittiest of Poets has told us. that 

*' All :i Klii torician'a nil 

Teach only how to name his tools." 

We have seen Professors of Rhetoric, who could no doubt descant flu- 
ently upon the use of these said tools; yet sharpen them to so wiry an 
edge as to cut their own fingers with these implements of their trade. — 
Thomas a Becket was as brave a man as Henry the Second, and. in- 
deed, a braver man — less infirm of purpose. And who were the rlilde- 
brands, and the rest of the Papal freebooters, who achieved victory after 
victory over the proudest Monarchsand States of Christendom? These men 
were brought up in a cloister, perhaps, but they were endowed with that 
highest of all the gifts of Heaven, the capacity to lead men. whether in the 
Senate, or the field. Sir. it is one and the same faculty, and its successful 
di-plav has alu ays reeen ed, and ever will receive, the highest honours that 
man can bestow: and tins will be the case, do what you will, cant what 
you may, about military chieftains and military domination. So long at 
man is man. the victorious defender of his country will, and ought to re- 
ceive that country's suffrage, for all that the forms of her Government 
allow her to give. 

\ friend said tome not long since, "Why, General Jackson can't 
write" — "admitted." (Pray, Sir, can you tell me of any one thai can 
write! for, 1 protest, I know uobodythat can. Then turning to mj friend, 
I said, v -lt is most true that General Jaokson cannot write.'" not that he 
can't write his name, or a letter, &c.) '* because he has never been taught; 
bat his competitor cannot write, because he was not teachable:' 1 fin he has 
had every advantage of education and study. Sir. the Duke of Marlbo- 
rough, the greatest captain and negotiator of his age — which was the 
ofJUouis \1\. — and who mav rank with the greatest men of any 
whose irresistible manner-, .mil address triumphed over every obstacle in 
council, as his military prowess and conduit did in the field — this 
man could not even spell, and was notoriously ignorant of all that an un- 
der graduate must know; but which it is not necessary for a man at the 
head of affairs to know, at all. Would you have superseded him by some 
Scotch Bchoolmastcrr Gentlemen forget that it is an able helmsman 
we want for the -hip <>f state, ami not a Professor of Navigation or \- 
trononrj . 

sir, among the vulgar errors that ought to ^o into sirThoma> Brown's 
book, thisoughi rmt to be omitted : that learning and wisdom are synonj- 



17 

mous, or at all equivalent Knowledge and wisdom, as oiie of ouy ntgs 
delightful poets Bings — 

" Knowledge and wisdom, fur from being' one, 

Have oft times no connexion — knowledge dwells 

In heads replete with thoughts of other men ; 

Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own. 

Know ledge is proud that he has learned so much ; 

Wisdom is humble that lie knows no more. 

Books are not seldom talismans and spills, 

By which the magic art of shrewder wits 

Holds the unthinking multitude enchained." 

And not books only, Sir — speeches are not less deceptive. 1 nil 
only consider the want of what is called learning not to be a disqualifica- 
tion for the command in chief in civil or military life, but I do consider the 
possession of too much learning to be of most mischievous consequence to 
such a character} who is to draw from the cabinet of his own sagacious mind, 
and to make the learning of others, or whatever other qualities they may 
possess, subservient to his more enlarged and vigorous views. Such a 
man was Cromwell — such a man was Washington." Not learned, but wise 
Their understandings were not clouded or cramped, but had fair play. 
Their errors were the errors of men, not of school boys and pedants 
So far from the want of what is called education being a very strong 
objection to a man at the head of affairs, over-education constitutes a still 
stronger objection. [In the case of a lady it is fatal. Heaven defend me 
from an over-educated, accomplished lady. Yes, accomplished indeed, 
for she is finished for all the duties of a wife, or mother, or mistress 
of a family.] We hear much of military usurpation, of military des 
potism — of the sword of a conqueror — of Caesar — and Cromwell — and 
Buonaparte. What little 1 know of Roman history has been gathered 
chiefly from the surviving letters of the great men ot that day — of Cicero 
especially — and I freely confess that, if 1 had then lived, and had been 
compelled to take sides, I must, though very reluctantly, have sided with 
Caesar, rather than have taken Pompev for my master. It was the interest of 
the house of Stuart — and they were Ions; enough in power to do it — to 
blacken the character of Cromwell — that great, and, I must add, bad man. 
But, Sir, the devil himself is not so black as lie is sometimes painted. — 
And who would not rather have obeyed Cromwell, than that self-styled 
Tail iament, which obtained a title too indecent for me to name, but by 
which it is familiarly known and mentioned in all the historians, from that, 
day to this. Cromwell fell under a temptation, perhaps too strong 
lor the nature of man to resist — but he was an angel of light to eithei ol 
the Stuarts — the one whom he brought to the block, or his son, a yet worse 
man, the blackest ami foulest of miscreants that ever polluted a throne. 
It has been the policy of the house of Stuart and their successors — it is the 
policy of Kings — to vilify and blacken the memory and character of Cronv 
well. Hut the cloud i.^ rolling away. We no Longer consider Hume as 
deserving of the slightest credit Cromwell was "guiltless of his coun- 
try's blood."* His was a bloodless usurpation. To doubt his sincerity at 
the outset, from his subsequent fall, would be madness — religious fervour 
was the prevailing temper and fashion of the times. Cromwell was no 
more of a fanatics than Charles the First, and not so much of a hypocrite. 

* Washington had a plain English education*, and mathcrr.a'ies enotVEr'i to quVu?' 
him for n land-survevor. 






1> 



It was not in his nature to ha\ pied the i ch a friend as 

Lord Strafford, whom Charles meanly and selfishly and basely and cru- 
elly and cowardly repaid for his loyalty to him, by an ignominious 
death— a death deserved, indeed, by Strafford, for In- treason to Ins 
cduntrV, hut not at the hand- of his faithless, | erfidious master. Cromwell 
was an usurper, 'tis granta : but ho bad ; any choice left him. Ilia 

sway was evei referableto that miserable ■ ofa Parliament, that 

he turned out, as a gentleman would turn offa drunken butler and his fel- 
lows; or the pensioned tyrant ucceeded him — a dissolute, depraved 
bigot and hypocrite, who was outwardly a Protestant and at heart a Pa- 
. He livedanddied one, while pretending to bea sonol the church of 
England, ay, ami swore to it, and died a perjured man. If I mus1 
have a master, give me one whom 1 can res] - rather than a knot ui 
knavish attorneys. Buonaparte was a bad man; but I would rather 
e had Buonaparte than such a set of c uru] • | ubli< '. | lun- 
de; - - he turned adr ft. I ; e - >nate i t Rome — the Parliament ol 
land — w the Councils of Elders and of -"" — the L of 
France — all made themselves fii then contemptible; ai :en 
comes an usurper: and this is the natural end of a corrupt civil govern- 
ment 

There is a class of men who poss eat learning, combined with in- 

veterate professional hab -. ind who are ipso facto, or ] • I should 

actis, for I must speak accurately, I ipeak before 
Professor, disqualified for any but secondary parts any where— «ven in 
the Cabinet. Cardinal Richelieu was what? A Priest Yes, but what 
a Priest! Oxenstiern was a I llor. He it was who si - son 

abroad tosee — quamparva sapienti — withho* lit! 

do a this world is governed. This Administration Beemed to have thought 
that ev.n less than that little would do for us. »entleman call- 

ed it a Btrong,an able Cabinet — second to none but W ton's firs 

.'net. 1 could hardly look at him for blushn Wl 

tin .t the head of the Treasury — M in the Department 

;- The mind of an accomplished an I in, of an 

iwyer, or, if you p] 

lit — ol one train 
rately tally todisq 

ils of a co intry. He may,nevert leless, oi 

a b —- 1 - ' nevei 

be. A man maybe capable of n 

any Bubi< hin the re of his knot 

and then the mast listi ill Btart,as 1 iim stai 

,ns to vi vn artifi : brought hit 

.. ,f. Bui I lis was a n • than ordini ral cand 

fi , . i |. Sir, by wordsand R - ' ' 7 0u 

,ut it often and most generally -• fact, that, in proportion as a 
proposition is lo ically or mathematically true, so is.it politii • ■ ■■ m- 
monsensicalb r rather nonsensically; false. The talent which enables 
., man to write a book, or make a speech, has no • elation to thelead- 

. The D • ' iincils ithe fii I 

t, wen ti ruliarh in Paris, I ) tl " 

then and thcrr, probi . 
Hrst rudin* i 
lopit 



19 

ing of an array ova Senate, than it has to the dressing of a dinner. The 
talent which tits a man for either office, is the talent for the manage- 
ment of men — a mere dialectician never had, and never will have it: 
each requires the same degree of courage, though of different kinds. The 
very highest degree of moral courage is required for tin- duties of govern- 
ment. I have been amused when 1 have seen some dialecticians, after as- 
sorting their words — "the counters of wise men, the money of fools" — 
after they had laid dowia their premises, and drawn, step bv step, theil 
deductions, sit down, completely satisfied, as if the conclusions to which 
they had brought themselves were really the truth — as if it were irrefra- 
i^ably true. But wait until another cause is called, or till another Court 
sits — till the bystanders and jury have had time to forget both argument 
and conclusion, and they will make you just as good an argument on the 
other side, and arrive with the same com; y at a directly oppo- 

site conclusion, and triumphantly demand your assent to this new truth. 
Sir, it is their business — I do not blame them. I only say that such a 
habit of mind unfits men for action, for de< ion. They want a client to 
decide for them which side to take: and the really great man performs 
that office. This habit unfits them fo] ment in the first degree. The 

talent for government lies in these two tiling agacitj to perceive, and 

decision to act. Genuine statesmen were never made such bv mere 
training: nascuntur non fiunt — education will form good business men. 
The maxim (nascitur non Ji<) is ar> true of statesmen as it is of poets. 
Let a house be on fire, you will soon see. in that confusion who has the u: 
lent to command. Let a ship be in danger at sea. and ordinary subordina- 
tion destroyed, and you will immediately make the same discovery. The 
ascendencv of mind and of character exists and rist a • naturally and as 
inevitably, where there i- free play for it, as ma. >rial bodies find their 
level by gravitation. Thus a great logician, like a certain animal. < - 
ciUating bet ween the hay on different sides of him, v ome power from 

without, before he can decide from which bundle to make trial. Who be- 
lieves that Washington could writ >od a book Or report as Jefferson, 
or make as able a speech as Hamilton? Who is there that believes thai 
Cromwell would have mad- a- g lod a Ju I Lord Hale? No, Sirj 
learned and accomplished men find their proper place under those who are 
fitted to command, and to command them among the rest. Such a man as 
Washington will say t i a Je Person, do you become my Secretary of State: 
to Hamilton, do you take charge of my purse, or that of the nation, which 
i- the same thing; ami to Knox, do you be ray master of the horse. .Mi 
history shows this: but great It i great scholars are, for (hat 
very reason, unfit to be rah:-. Would libal have crossed the Alps 
when there were no roads — with elephants — in the face of the war 
like and hardy mountaineers — and have carried terrour to the verj 

ie. if his youth had been spent in poring over hook.-,? Would he have 
been able to maintain himself on the resources of his own genius for six- 
teen vears in Italy, in spite of faction and treachery in the Senat 
Cartha •-••. it he had been deep in conic sections and fluxions, and the dif- 
ferential calculus — to - hingof botany, ami mineralogy, and ch< 
• s ? "Are you not ashamed," • ii I a philosopher to one who was born !■• 
rule, "are you not ashamed to p! ,\ - > well upon the flute?" Sir. i' 
well put. There is much which it K ondary man to know — 



20 

nuin that 11 is necessary tor him to know, that ;t lir.^i rate man ought to 
be ashamed to know. No head waa ever clear and sound that was stuff- 
ed with book Learning. Von might as well attempt to fatten and strength- 
en a man by stuffing aim with every variety and the greatest (juantit 
food. Alter all, the Chief musl draw upon hie subalterns for much thai 
he does not know, and cannot perform himself. My friend Win. R. 
Johnson has many a groom that can clean and dress a race horse, and ride 
him too, better than he can. Hut what of that? Sir, we arc. in the Euro- 
pean sense of die term, nol a military people. We have no business for an 
army — it hangs as a dead weighl upon the nation — officers and all. Sir. 
all that we hear of it is through pamphlets; indicating a spirit that, 
if I was at the head of affairs, I should very speedily put down. A 
state of tilings that never could have grown up under a man of decision 
of character at the head of the State, or the Department; a man possessing 
fhc spirit of command; thai truesl of all tests of a Chief, whether military 
or civil. Who rescued Braddock, when he was fighting, secundum 
artem, and his men were dropping around him on everj side? It v. - 
Virginia Militia Major. He asserted in thai crisis the place which properly 
belonged to him, and which he afterwards filled in the manner we all 
know. 

Sir, I may, without any mock modesty, acknowledge what I feel, that. 
1 have made an unsuccessful reply to the gentleman from Massachusetts. 
There are some subjects which 1 could have wished to have touched upon 
before I sit down now and for ever. I had the materials in my possi ion 
when I came to the House this morning, but [ am disabled by physical 
weakness from the mosl advantageous use of th< m. 

What shall we say to a gentleman, in tl is 1! >use or out of it, occupy 
mg a prominent station, and filling a large si ace in the eye of his ua ve 
State, who should, with all the adroitness <•! a practised advocate, gloss 
over the acknowledged encroachments of the men in power upon the fair 
i onstruction of the Constitution, and then present the ai i ailing picture. 
glaring and flaming, in hisdeepesl colour-, of a blpody military tyrant — a 
raw -head ami bloody-bones — so thai we cannot sleep in our beds; who 
should conjure up all the images that can scare children, or frighten old 
women — 1 mean very old women, Sir — and who offers this wretched cari- 
cature — this vile daub, where brick-dust stands for blood, like Peter Por- 
cupine's Blood's Buot, asa reason for his and oar support in Virginia, of 
a man in whom he has no confidence, whom he damn* with faint prat 
and who. moreover — tell it not in Grath! had zealously, and elaborately, 
.1 cannot -,i\ ably) justified every one of these very atrocious and bloody 
deeds? Yes, sir, on paper — not in the heat of debate, in the tra i - of a 

speech^ but — as the author of the Richmond Anathema full well knew — 
mi! knew that we, too, knew — deliberately and officially. Who instituted 
the festival of Santa Victoria, on the 8th of January, in honour of Gene- 
ral .lack-on, and of Mrs. Jackson tool The present incumbent — when 
Mr. Crawford was the great object of dread. It we did not knov 
thai lawyers never see hut one Bide of a case— thai on which they are 
retained, and that the) fondly hope that the jury will see with I 
- — what should we sajj of such a man? \\\> client having m> cha 
ler, he atta< ks Defendant'.- character, upon a string of cl • _•-..• verv 
one of which supposing them to be true his client was 9elf*avowed parti' 
reps r.riminis — having defended, adopted, and made each and even oneol 
m his "v. i,. Sir, such a man m ; . I ■ • 



11 

but a poor specimen ofbis skill in that line,) or a great Mathematician, 01 
Chemist; but of a man guilty of such glaring absurdity it may be fearless 
ly pronounced, that, in the management of Ins own concerns and in the 
affairs of men, he has not "right good common sense." And here, Sir, 
we come to that »reat and all-im ... .nn distinction, which the profane vul- 
gar —whether they be the great vulgar or the small —too often overlook; 
and which I have." lamely, f fear, endear oured to press upon the 11 »use 1 
mean the distinction between knowledge and learning, on the one hand, 
and sense and judgment on the '>ther. And there lies the ureat de- 
fect of the gentleman in question. I have heard it said of him, by 
those who know and love him well, " that he can argue either side of a 
"question, whether of law. of policy, or of constitutional construction, 
" with great ingenuity and force: but he wants that sagacity in political 
« affairs, which firsl "discerns 'he proper end. and then adopts the most 
"appropriate means: and lie is deficient in that knowledge of mankind, 
"which would enable another (much his inferior) to perceive that his 
"honest disinterestedness is played upon by those who are conscious that 
" he prides himself upon it. It is the lever by which he is on all occasions 
li to be moved. It is his pride — an honest and honourable pride, which 
"makes him delight to throw himself into minorities, because he enjoys 
"more self-gratification from manifesting his independence of popular 
••opinion — than he could derive from any thing in the gift of the People. 
"His late production — the Adams convention manifesto, is the feeblest 
"production of the day. The reason is, his head and heart did not go 
'■'together." * 

This picture is drawn by the hand of a friend. As we have had 
billiard tables and chess boards introduce'! into this debate, I hope! may 
be allowed to borrow an illustration from this last gar One of these 

arguing machines reminds me of thebishoj at chess. Th • bla< .. orwhite 
bishop (1 use the term not in reference to the colour of the piece, but of 
that of the square he stands u m is a ,: ;abl piect enough -w ! - 
way; but he labours under this defect; that, moving in the diagonal only, 
he can never getoff.his original colour. His clerical character is inde- 
lible.! He can scour awaj all over jusl one half :f the board; bul his 
adversary may be an the next square, and perfectly safe from his 
attack. To be safe from the bishop, you have only to move upon a:.; 
one of the thirty-two squares that are forbidden ground to him. But o< I 
so the irregular knight, who. at bucci ssive ':• .ij s, can cover every square 
upon the board, to whose check the kins can interpose no guard, b 
must move, or die. Even the poor pawn has a privilege which the 
bishop has not: for he can elude his mitred adversary by moving from a 
white square to a black one, or from a black square to a white one, and 
finally reach the highest honours of the game. So even a poor peasant of 
sense may instruct the philosopher, as the shepherd did, in that beautiful 
introduction* the finest of Mr. Gay's fable- bat one, who drew all his no 
tions of men and things from nature. It is in vain to turn over mus- 
ty folios, and to double down dog's earsj it d tes very well in it- place — 
iii a lawyer's office — or a bureau} I am forced to use the ward for v mi 
of a better; but it will not supply the place of thai which books never gave, 
and never can give — of sagacity, judgment and experience. Who wou 
■'Kike the better leader, in a period oi greal public emergency — old R 



» «;. 



An;. s D. f As II . I to hi 



22 

Sherman, or a certain very learned gentleman from New York, whom we 
once had here, who knew ev( ry thins in the world for which man has no 
occasion, and nothing in the world For which man has occasion? The 
People, who are always unsophisticated — and though they may occasion- 
ally be misled, are always right in their reelings, and always judge cor- 
rt" tly in the long run — have taken up this thii It is a notorious fact 

that, in Virginia, i - '. the County Courts, where men are admitted to Bit a* 
judges, who ?re not of the legal profession — plain planters, who have no 
pretensions to be considered as lawyer — the decisions are much seldomet 
reversed than in those courts where a barrister presides: his reasons maj 
be more plausible, but his decisions will be oftener wrong. Ye-. Sir, the 
People have decided upon this thing. 

On my return home last March I passed by Prince Edward Court 
House. It was court day. I had been abroad during the recess of ( on- 
gress, and I had not seen my constituents for two years. They crowded 
around me, and many of them said — "Now we expect that you will ex- 
plain to US, how it is that we are to vote for General Jackson." They, as 
well as myself, had had objections to General Jackson; although I alv 
said, in regard to him. "that I could put my finger u/ion his p 'lick ser- 
vices; that he hail strong cla'-ms u] on his country: while his competitors, 
and the predecessor of the successful one, hid never rendered any for 
which they had not been .imply paid, and some of them greatly overpaid.** 
My objections to General Jackson were greatly diminished by a per- 
sonal acquaintance with him. v.: en he was las! in the Senate. lint to my 
constituents. Singling out one of them, a steady old planter, and staunch 
republican friend — 1 asked him. ••When you have had a faithless, worth- 
less overseer, in whom you could place no confidence, and have resolved 
to dismiss him — did you ever change your mind, because, fir no matter 
what reaSuR, you could no* ic>'t tin- man that you preferred toevery other? 
or have you been satisfied to turn him oft', and employ the best man that 
you could ^el?** Sir. a word to the wise is en >Ugh. They were entirely 
satisfied; and in a few weeks we were, as we ate. unanimous for Ja< kg 

I will suppose a case: 1 will suppose that the lite convulsive Mnig- 
gles of the Administration may so far succeed, as thai they shall be able 
to renew their Lease for another four years. Now if a majority of 
This !l >use can't get along with such a minority hanging on their rear, 
cutting off supplies, and beating up their quarters, what will be thesitua- 
tion of the Administration thenr Sir, what is it now? ii Palsiedby the 
will of their ci ents." Did any body ever I f a victory 

tained by the Executive power, while a decided majority of the 1.. 
gislature was againsl it? 1 know of no such victory, but one — and 

,.:i was the parricidal victorj of the youngeT Pitt over the Constitu- 
tion of England; and he gained bj the impenetrable obstinacy 
of the k . which tht indica I the disease that was lurking 
in his constitutioi - a id rd so unhappily became manifest. 

The King was an honest man, and a much abler man than he i 
had credit for. But he was incurably obstinate. He had just lost the Co- 
lonies. No ma ter — he would risk the Crown of Eugland itself, and re- 
tire to his hereditary J - in I ermany, rather than yield: and, bin 
for a barefaced coalition, he would have so retired, and have supplied a 
-i important defi i t in the act of settlement : the separation of rianovei 
from England. Bui the corrupt bargainof Lord North and Mr. Fox, to 
shave oflfi [ ' sted the i -thei took - : - ; -- • " • i 



23 



against their own liberties. But here the coalition is not on the - 
oi the people's rights, but against them. Mr. Pitt, (the Crown rather,) 

triumphed. Knaves cried Hosanna ; fools repeated the cry. England 
recovered bv that elasticity which belongs to free institutions, and Mr Pitt 
attained a degree of power that enabled him to plunge her into the mad 
vortex of war with Revolutionary Fr .ivce. Nine hundred millions of debt ; 
taxes, in amount, in degree and mode, unheard of; pauperism, misery, in 
all possible forms of wretchedness j attest the greatness of the Heaven- 
born Minister, who did not weather the storm, but was whelmed beneath 
it, leaving his country to that Providence whom it pleased to rescue her in 
her utmost need, by inflicting madness on her great unrelenting enemy, 
and Bending this modern Nebuchadnezzar to grass. Mr. Pitt is as 
strong an instance for my purpose as I could have wanted. He was a 
rhetorician, a speech maker; a man of words, and good words >o. at will ; 
a dexterous debater; and if he had continued to ride the Western circuit, 
he might have been an eminent wrangler at the bar, and, in due time, a 
Chief Justice or Lord Chancellor. But, for the sins oi England, he was 
made Prime Minister, and at five and twenty too. Mr. Pitt no more 
saw what was ahead of him, than the ideot in the parish workhouse. He 
no more dreamed, when the war began, to what point he would be able to 
push his system, if system it may be called, than anv clerk in his office. 
He did not even foresee the stoppage of the Bank, which he was compelled* 
to resort to in the fourth year ot the war. 

The productive powers of a people like the English, where property is 
perfectly secure and left free to act, and where the industrious classes are 
shin out from almost any participation in public affairs, is incredible; is 
almost without limit. Two individuals discovered two mines, more pre- 
cious and productive than Guanajuato or Potpsi, that furnished the means 
for his prodigality, thai astonished even Mr. Pitt. These were Sir Rich- 
ard Arkwright and Mr. Watt — the spinning machine and the steam engine. 
And this imbecile and blundering Minister has Ijcen compliment; d with 
what is due to the unrivalled ingenuity and industry of his countrymen. 
- . Sir, in like manner, this young Hercules of \merica,who. if we can keep 
him from being strangled by the serpents of corruption, must grow to gi. 
gantic strength and stature ; ever\ improvement which he make*, in spite 
of the misrule (dins governors, these \ ery modestly arrogate to themselves. 

We have been told, officially, that the Pies dent wished the great f|ues- 
t.ion to have been referred back to the people, if, bv the forms of thi Con- 
stitution, this < .aid be done. [fl were the friend, as ! am the undis- 
guised enemy of this Administration, I would say to them, you may be 
inn icent — your intentions may be upright — but you have brought the 
country to thai . iss, hatyou can't* i the Government. A- gen- 

tlemen, pos the least self-respect, you ought to retire — leave it — 

try another venn —you can't carry on the (J ivernment withou us, any 
more than we can act while every thing in the Executive Government is 
against us. Sir, there are cases in which suspicion is equivalent to proof; 
and not only equal to i;, bul more than equal to the most damning proof. 
There is not a husband here who will not ratify this declaration — there 
mav be suspicion so agonizing, that it makes the wretch cry out for cer- 
tainty as a relief from the most damning tortures. Such suspicions are 
entertained with respect to these gentlemen — and (hough th n are making 

■-,. ■ ^ppendhe — Note R 



• mvulsive effort to roll back the tide of public opinion, they can 
the feeling — the suspicion I the lacte — and, do whal they may, 

will not bend- attheir biddii , \ mit it to be suspicio » equam 

fatal, as regards them and the*; service, with the reality. Mr. R. 

\. mid ii"! go in pursuil of the and aliases of the accused — of the 

. whethei with false bottoms or double bottoms, thrown out t<» amuse 
the publick. The whole conduct of the accused bad displayed nothing ol 
dm dignity of innocence, but all t! tlessness of < »nscious guilt. 

Ev< ry word of Mr. Clay's late pamphlet might be true, nd yet the 
cused be guilty, notwithstanding. Mr. R. would notnow examine his 
consistent declarations, to different perron?, and at different times and 
occasions. Th< stary was not die first witness who had proved too 

much. " He who pleads hia own cause, (-ays the proverb,) generally has 
a fool for hi i t." ' 

The gentleman from Massachusetts warned us, thai, if the individual 
we seek to elevate shall succeed, he will, in his turn, become the object 
of public pursuit, and that the same pack will be unkennelled at his heel-. 
thai h ft run his rival down. It maybe so. 1 have no hesitation to say, 
. if Ins conduct shail deserve it", and I live, i shall be one of that 
pack} because, I maintain the interests of Stockholders against Presi- 
dents, ! Cashiers. And here. Sir. I beg leave tonoticean 
tion u! _• I. .-> i have heard, against me by the man fn 

. He s ps that I have been opposed to all Administratio 
Sir, I den} it to be fact I did • i | »se the elder Adams, because heat- 
tacked the libert) e press and of the subject; because his opinions 
r with the genius of our institutions. He avowed them openly, 
and I liked him setter for hia frankne But I supported for 
m ,[•• than five vears the administration of his successor. I didfnrit what 
i ,i,j — [ittle enouj, h, God know . The Brst case in which 1 differed from 

as the base of the \ a/.oo Chums, which I th I . 

. ;;. i lL mt corruption! 1 do uot mean, and I never did believe, that 

. •; • President, or hia two Secretaries; and it did not 
...... them. !- ated from that Administra- 

n in thn ->■ J, witl i an w, and not with I 

j for I have no idcaof that extreme of i and meekness 

which denounces the n > vernnu is psintheplav, 

"and will roar you i •'" It is not my nature to 

do so, and •"• i: " ' ause "' v ' ,,,iu! he 

crisy, I it. VN hen the former res m wasfii 

menced, I thoug I saw what I now know 1 did then see— the I 
ruinous conscqu nces thai v. out of it. I told Mr. Jefferson, 

candidl) and frankly, that, if he expected su| a a certain quarter, 

ind did not find it, he need v. •• I will not repeat what he 

said on that occasion, but he deplored tl ration. But permit me to 

rem ir — for >.>u were tl of these mat- 

. . but nearly at the I I my leaving that Ad- 

ministration, a certain wise manfrom the East joined it. who soon 
la, under strong suspicion ol felony; and this ^ - 
, bi a certain gentleman's giving in his adhesion, who had before 
osi M to it. and toall its best measun 9. Sir. I have not 
[ eaS l objection to its b aid of me, that 1 separ ted myself from 



do 

Mr Jefterson, when Barnabas Bidwell and John Quincy Adams joine'd 
him.* 

Some allusion has been made to the discordant materials of the present 
Opposition. They are somewhat discordant — at least they have been 
so. But are they more so than the adherents of the present Administra- 
tion, or the materials of the Administration itself? I well remember 
almost the first propitiation (the first was the writ of habeas corpus) which 
he who is now the President of the United States made to Mr. Jefferson 
and his party. It was an attempt to run down the present Chief Justice. 
The right of John Smith, to a seat in the Senate was made the pegto hang 
it on. I will tell the gentleman the whole reason why I have opposed the 
Administration since that time, and may again, if. according to my judg- 
ment, they shall not consult the good of the country. It is. Sir, simnh 
because I am for the interests of the Stockholders — of whom I am one — as 
opposed to those of the President, Directors, and Cashiers; and I have the 
right of speaking my opinion, and shall exercise it, though it happen to be 
against the greatest and proudest names. 

Sir, 1 am no judge of human motives: that is the attribute of the Name 
which I will not take in vain — the attribute of Him who rules in Heaven, 
or who becomes incarnate upon Earth: motives free from alloy belonged 

* Never was an Administration more brilliant than that of Mr. Jefferson up to 
this period. We were indeed in the "full tide of successful experiment." Taxes 
npeakd; the publick debt amply provided for — both principal and interest; sinecures 
abolished; Louisiana acquired; publick confidence unbounded. We had all, and we 
wanted more than all. We played for eleven and lost the game, when we had ten- 
From the junction of Bidwell and Adams, we may date that embargo of fifteen months 
that eclipsed the sun of our glory, and disastrous t\\ ilight shed on more than half the 
nation. Mr. Madison removed this incubus, of which we were tired, but ashamed to 
rid ourselves. The arrangement with Erskine followed. At the Maj session of 1809 
the House of Representatives evaded a motion i xpressive of their approbation of the 
promptitude and frankness with which the President had concluded this arrangement. 
It was soon after disavowed by England. The embargo struck the first staggering 
blow on our agriculture, and .scuttled our ships. The landed and navigating interests 
have never recovered from it. It is the nidus j of the manufacturing system and policy; 
fostered since by the war, by double duties, and by tariffs. What bounty on manu- 
factures does the Harrisburg Convention propose, that is equal to a total prohibition 
of exports' 



j The hot-bed rather, and the fomes too. Y ,r g">ia may thank herself. She is th< 
author of her own undoing. Mercantile clamour induced her, in an evil hour, to com- 
mence the restrictive system. She laid embargoes, and at length made war for "1 
Trade and Sailors' Rights." Cui bono 11 The Hartford nation, as Mr. J., their gn it 
est although unintentional benefactor, denominated them. We took the crtdit- 
the cash. — 

"Which had the better bargain'" — "Honest Congreve! is a man after mv own 
h.urt." 

The Hartford nation may sing now, to an old tune: 

" Populus me sibilat at mihi plaudo 

Ipse domi, simul ac minimus contemplor in area.'' 
Geseral reflections are always unjust, and therefore unwise. Mr. R. great h 
apects many New-England men, and many points in the New-England characti r. He 
regrets the change at home, as well as there, from the original distinctive n arks i 
'he Cavalier ami the Covenanter. New-England has no longer her Samuel Ad a 
and her Roger Shermans. Virginia also seeks in vain for her Washington?, and Han 
iphs, and Rlands, and Lees, and Nelsons, and Henrys. Ru', at the worst, the en?. 
meter of a miser is far preferable to that of a Even tV - 

' • lible than the hub! ' 



/ 26 

o thai Divine incarnation, and to Him only, oi all thai have borne th< 
form of man. Mere man can claim do such exenq tion. 

1 do not pretend that my own motives do not partake of their full share 
of the infirmity of our common nature — but, of thos< infirmities, neither 
avarice nor ambition form one; iota in the composition of my present mo- 
tives. Sir. what can the country do for me? Poor a s 1 am — for 1 am much 
poorer than 1 have been — impoverished by unwise legislation — I still have 
nearlj a^ much a^ I know how to use — more, certainly, than i have at all 
times made a good use of — and. as tor power, what charm can if have for 
one like me? If power had been my object. 1 must have been less sa- 
gacious than my worst enemies have represented me to be, (unless, in- 
deed, those who would have kindly shut me up in bedlam.) if 1 had not ob- 
tained it. L may appeal to all my friends to say whether " there have not 
;i been times when i >tood in such favor in the closet, that there must have 
"been something very extravagant and unreasonable in my wishes, if 
"they might not all have been gratified." Was it office? What, Sir, to 
drudge in your laboratories in the Departments, or be at the tail of the 
corps diplomatique in Europe? Alas! Sir, in my condition a cup of cold 
water would be more acceptable. What can the country give me that 
1 do not possess in the confidence of such constituents as no man ever had 
before? I can retire to my old patrimonial trees, where 1 maj see the 
sun rise ami set in peace. Sir. as 1 was returning, the other evening, 
from the Capitol, 1 saw — what has been a rare 3igh1 here this winter — the. 
sun dipping nis broad disk among the trees behind those Virginia hills, not 
allaying his glowing axle in thi steep Atlantic stream — and 1 asked my- 
self' if, with this book of Nature unrolled before me.' I was not the inns 
foolish of men tobe struggling and scuffling here, in this heated and im- 
pure atmosphere, where ti'." | faj i- not worth the candle? Hut then the 

i rushed upon tnj mind, that 1 was. vainly, perhaps, but honestly, 
striving to uphold the liberties of the People who senl me here — \^. Sir, 
for can those liberties co-exist with corruption? At the ver\ worst, the 
question recurs: — Which will the mor< effectually destroy them: collusion, 
bargain and corruption here, or a military despotism? When can that be 

blished over us? Never, nil the Congress has become odious and con- 
temptible in the eyes of the People. I have learned, from the highest 
of ;; ii authority, that the first step towards putting on incorruption i> the 
putting off corruption. That recollection nerves me in the presenl con- 

: for 1 know that, if weare successful, I shall hold over the head of those 
who -hall in (fed the presenl incumbent, a rod whi< h they will not dare, 
, N ,. u ifthej had the inclination, to disobey, rhej will tremble at the punish- 
ment ,,f their predecessors. Sir, il we succeed, we shall restore the Con- 
stitution — we shall redress the injur} done to the People — we shall regene- 
ra t< • country, [f the Administration which ensues shall be as bad aa 
ter of the opposing candidate QGen. J.] is represented by his 
bitterest foes to !»•. still, i had rather it were in the seat of powci than 

• ••(> how canal ihon renounce the boundlci 
i ji' < barms «t Inch Nature to her rotan j i> Ids! 
rhe warbling woodland, the resounding 8hor< . 
ii.i pomp of groves and garniture ot n< 
that tin gen'ud raj of Morning gilds, 
I nil that echoes to the song of Even, 
\ll thai the mountain's -h< Itering bosom shields, 

• H 
»ho nasi thou !•■ n iun< e, and hope to he P 



27 



the present dynasty, because it will have been fairly elected. The foun 
rain of its authority will not be poisoned at the source. But, if we 
perish under the spasmodic struggles of those now in power to reinstate t hem- 
selves on the throne, our fate will be a sacred one — and who would wish 
to survive it? there will be nothing left in the country worth any man's 
possession. If, after such an appeal as has been made to the People, and a 
majority has been brought into this ami the other House of Congress, this 
Administration shall be able to triumph, it will prove that there is a rotten- 
nessin our institutions, which ought to render them unworthy of any man's 
regard. Sir, my 'church-yard cough'' <;ives me the solemn warning, that. 
whatever part f shall take in the chase, 1 may fail of being in at the death. 
I should think myself the basest and the meanest of men — I care not what 
the opinion ol the world might be — I should know myself to be a scoundrel, 
and should not care who else knew it, if 1 could permit any motive, con- 
nected with division of the spoil, to mingle in this matter with my poor. 
but best exertions for the welfare of my country. If gentlemen suppose 
lam giving pledges, they are mistaken — I give none: they are entitled to 
none— and I give none. I shall retire upon my resources — I will go 
back to the bosom of my constituents — to such constituents as man never 
had before, and never will have again — and I shall receive from them the 
only reward that I ever Looked for, but the highest that man can receive — 
the universal expression of their approbation — of their thanks. I shall read 
it in their beaming faces; 1 shall feel it in their gratulating hands. The 
vcrv children will climb around my knees, to welcome me. And shall I 
give up them; and this? And for what? For the heartless amusements and 
vapid pleasures and tarnished honours of this abode of splendid misery, 
of shabby splendour? for a clerkship in the War Office, or a foreign 
mission, to dance attendance abroad, instead of at home — or even for a 
Department itself? Sir, thirty years make sad changes in man. When 
I first was honoured with their confidence^ I was a very young man. and 
my constituents stood almost in parental relation to me. and I received 
from them the indulgence of a beloved son. But the old patriarchs of 
that day have been gathered to their fathers — some adults remain, whom 
T look upon as my brethren: but the far greater part were children — little 
children — or have come into the world since my public life began. I 
know among them grandfathers, and men muster-free, who were boys at 
school when I fust took my seat in Congress. Time, the mighty reformer 
and innovator, has silently and slowly, but surely, changed the relation 
between us; and I now stand to them, in loco parentis — in the place of a 
father — and receive from them a truly filial reverence and regard. Yes, 
Sir, they are my children — who resent, with the quick love of children, 
all my wrongs, real or supposed. Shall 1 not invoke the blessing of our 
common Father upon them? Shall I deem any sacrifice too great for theme 
To them I shall return, if we are defeated, for all of consolation that await? 
me on this side of the grave. I feel that I hang to existence but by a single 
hair — that the sword of Damocles is suspended over me, 

If we succeed, we shall have given a new lease to the life of the Con 
stitution. But. should we fail. I warn gentlemen not to pour out their re 
■j:rets on General Jackson. He will be the first to disdain them. The ob- 
ject of our cause has been, not so much to raise Andrew Jackson to the 
Presidency — be his merits what they may — a- the signal and com! 
punishment of those publick servants, on whom, if they be nol guilty, tm 
very strongest suspicion of jruilt •■ ;r justlvrerst 



VPPEND1A. 



Xibte A, /). 8.— It would be matb r of curious inquiry to ascertain how it has come u< 
pass, that in proportion as we, in Virginia, have p - 1, or abandoned the cheer- 

ful exercises and amusements of our fathers, we have b. come less amiable 
and moral, as a people. When 1 v as a young- man, no gentleman was ashamed of 
playing a game of billiards, or of cards There was much less gaming' then man now. 
Mm then played and drank in publick, from a spirit of society, as well as the love for 
both, inherent in human nature. Publicity is the great restraint upon individuals as 
well as government. The "JJellf o! London, and the styes of Caprez, and the 
Pare aux Cerfa attesl this. Publicity represses excess, until the man is sunk in the 
beast, and -very restraint of shame thrown off F trmcrly, friends had it in their 
power to restrain the votaries of chance or of the bottle; but now their incurable ruin 
in in, nil, body and estate, gives the first notice of their devotion to play or to drink. 
Solitary intoxication on ardent spirits is the substitute for the wine table, and in some den 
of thieves, s .Hi' cellar or some garret, the unhappy youth is stripped of his property, 
with no witness of the fairness of the game but Ins desperate and profligate undoers. 
In Virginia w< are, and I trust shall ever be, alive to State rights. But have the 
people no rights as against the Asa mbrj > All oppression commences under specious 
I have wondered that no rural, orrather rustick Hampden has bei n found to 
withstand the petty tyranny which has as good a right to take awaj hiswife's looking- 
glass or frying-pan, as his billiard table. By what authority is this done? Dndex co- 
lour of law, 1 know; but a law in the te< th <n all the princ pies of free governm nt. 

The principle of what is call, d the duelling-law — it ought to he calhd the perjury- 
Jaw — j s v et more deti -table. I am no ad- I dm 11'. ng-- but it may be put down- 
by som :th ng \\ >rse. Ba ' as it i>, it is better than dirking and gouging — and they 
are I ir Uj worse than callii i s and bandying insults, if >o bad. Th : oath pre- 
icribed by the duelling-! the teeth of every p nciple of free government, of 
the act for establishing religiousTreedom, and would justify anj test, religious or po- 
litical, even an oath of belief in transubstantiation. 
We were a merry-making, kind-hearted, hospitable people; fond of ••/"'■' 
the old President of the Court of Appeals used to Bay,) and no one, as the men of 
roline county and Essex can testify, (iked "junketting," ("wier/y," as Lady 
than Edmund Pendleton. Yes, the Mansfield of Virginia, whom 
he resembled in the polished suavity of his manners, his unrivalled professional learn- 
ing and abilities, and the retention of his faculties, unimpaired, to a \ erj advanced old 
There is another splendid example of the same rare qualities in the first judicial 
officer of tH I tes. Who is fonder of a game of billiards, or any other innoc 
amusement, than the Chief Justice? V .1 nay deplore the change from < 
! and innocent pastimes and hoti-days, to the present state of listless eimw, or 
ling rapacity. In proportion a.-> we "have approached puritanical preciseness and 
aust< rit\ , c tro rradi d in moi 
[do not indeed earn- ti, is an acquaintance ofmine, who 1 
k of *' hitcliing into rhyme," and who, a ier good — 

'• Hence, if ' n, 1 would ad^ — 

I his fair prospe< I 
[f v u would wish him in 

( m s, l.t him st 1 1 ly Hotlb. 
if In- native genius shoul 
... — indul 

future •' 

\ ,1 xt'rous 

,\, . pai k maj make a P« ddi 

-After my arrival in Eur s.Isawinthenewsp ' ! - Wei 

, hofjulv— "H 
\. is. Mr. I die rival and d< iy <"■ 



o 



->M 

. ... affair oi Mr. Iehabod Bartlett, (a name of omen,) was ostentatious in Iiis dec. . . 
(ions of friendship and connexion with Mr. \\\, whom he gratuitously assumed to have 
been assailed by the said Ichabod! that he might manifest msdevotionto his new friend. 

I then looked upon Mr. Clay as laying an anchor to windward and eastward; and in 
fact, offering his blandishment to New England, in the person of Mr. \V. while at the 
same time he proclaimedhis strength in that quarter as the ally of Mr. W. and the pow- 
erful party of which he is the leader and mouth-piece. If the maxim be true — 
ars eat celart artem — then then Ives not a less artful m n upon earth than Mr. C. 
Tlis system consists in soothing- by flattery, or bullying — these constitute hiswhole stock 
in trade — and very often he applies hoth to the same person. The man of delicacy, to 
whom his coarse adulation is fulsome, and the man of unshaken firmness, when these 
two characteristicks unite in the same person, cannot be operated on by him. 

Mr. W. and the rival of ( hilly Mcintosh were put on the A. B. Committee to run 
down Mr. Crawford. I too, though in Baltimore when Mr. Floyd (my colleague) 
moved to raise that Committee, was put upon it. 1 was not then the polltcul friend 
or supporter of Mr. Crawford. His political principles on the United Stat s'Bank and 
some other questions were to mine nearly, although not quite, as obnoxious as those of 
his competitors. I never took sides with him until be was pi rsecuti d Mr Macon and 
Mr. Floyd both know, that, on my arrival from Baltimore, I peremptorily declared that 
I would not serve on that Committee. I believed it to he (as it was) a snare for me: 
a snare from which I providentially escaped. Mr. W.'s true character first developed 
hself to tie then; as, at the same time, ' told Mr. Tazewell. A* tin- earnest persua- 
sion of Mr. Macon, and entreaty of Mr Floyd, 1 reluctantly agreed to serve. Mr. F. 
being tak n violently .11 and confined to his bed, I abandoned mj seat in the Com- 
mittee and went abroad for health. 

Nate C, p. 19. — A caterpillar comes to a fence ; he crawls to the bottom of »he ditch, 
and over the fence, some one of his hundred feet always in contact with the subject 
Upon which hemoves a gallant ..orseman, at a flying leap dears both ditch and fence — 
Stop' Bays the caterpillar; you are too flighty — you want connexion and continuity: 
it took me an hour to get over — you can't be as sure as I am, who have never quitted 
the subject, that you have overcome the difficulty and are fairly over the fence." 
«« rbou n r< pi le, (repl es o ir fox-hunter,) if, like you, I crawled over the 

earth slowly and painfully, mould 1 ever catch a fox? or be any tiling more than a 
Wretched caterpillar"' — N. B. lie did not say "of the law?" 

Note D, p. 21. — Some of the mi ml: era of the Richmond Adams-Convention (I like to 
call things by their right names) have had, I am told, the modest) tosaythat "it was the 
most august body that has assembled since the Cong. declared Independence!" 

The same declaration, in the very same words, was made in the Senate, concerning 
another "august body," the Hartford Convention, by Mr. Otis, a member of said 
"august body." 

This moderate hyperbole, I suspect, must have come from some wiseacre, south of 
Appomatox, or of Roanoke, who was at once his own constituent body and represen- 
tative. I know many verj worthy and respectable members of the "august body;" 
two of them, in particular, excellent and sensible men; my own good friends and 
con- whose nam s, I own, surprised me, when appended to such a manifesto. 

Others, no doubt, are equally respectable. But what shall we say — not to the Secre- 
-iv), it is r. dl - to .-ay anything of him. His name associated with that of 
Chapman Johnson, must be grat ful to that di tied luminary of the bar and of 

Virginia. In our part of the country, we still . tain the old fashioned prejudice 
nst the three degrees of borrowing, begging, and stealing. W< still beh ire, in 
Charlotte and Prince Edward, that i very honest man pa] s his just debts! if 1 were 
to go to Oakland, (where ! hope soon to be,) and wen to si al one of my friend Wm. 
K. Johnson's plough horses, value perhaps sixtj doll . I should subject myself to 
the penitentiary. But would be not rather be robbed ot a work horse, than that any 
man should bu\ Mxnun or Sali.v Walxeb of him, for some thousands of dollars, and 
never pay him. Swim cttique tribuifo — is still held in respect with us; and we paj 
small deference to the opinions of Judges, even in the last n lort, whose creditors cry 
aloud in vain for justice against the dispensers of justice — a Judge who finally and 
conclusively determines between tneum and (hum, who pot lOtbJng awun. If 

we do have a Convention, I trust that the corrective will be applied »n fkta and some 
other abuses of the onlj privileged chtSs among if* 



10 

\i c .. do faith, on the < of James* F;.- • le Pt< l« >- 

ui- him who presided over the Richmond Adams Convention—the successor* in I 
of Pendleton and Spencer Roane. Lichas wielding the club of Hercules! A man 
who docs not endeavour to make up by assiduity and study for the slenderneas of Ids 
Capacity, and his utter want of proi tl 1 aiming. 

** 'I'here is a tide in the affairs of men, 

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to Fortune." 

Mr. C. is as strong an instance of th himself could have adduced 

IK il\ a second rate lawyer at the County-Court Ma:- of Amherst and Buckingham, 
sheer accident mad< him Governour of Virginia. Hup;) miugthento be amemberofthe 
A~> mbly, [when a very obnoxious character was held up for the office 
good t< mper and amiable manners, and most respectable and powerful connexions— the 
untying of a me; iter's shoe caused him to be pitched upon to keep out the only candi- 
date. With that exception, the office was going- a-begging. Conducting himseU 
unexceptionably andinoffensiv :ly as Go\ rnour, he had a count;,* and one of the 6jh st 
Tdo in th. State, nun d aft* r him, and was adv.nn ed to the Court of Appeals, of which 
he bids fair to be President; a Cmut in which, if he had remained at the Bar, he 
probably would never have obtained a brief. 

\i \' nerablc fri( nd, .Mr. Mai ■ i, has more than once observed to me, that, with the 
exception of North Carolina, . not even \ irginia, ha I i ailed a county after or 

done honor to the President of the first Congress, who, if he had lived, and th 
Lad gone against us, would, with another Virginian, have b< 1 out i 

ringleacli rs of the aBBBLLias, and of, accordingly, in terroran of all 

future off nders, 

I have seen the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, Sir William I 
per Best. John })■-• 1 ; . (both very infirm m< n.) sit, day aft* r daj , the one at 

' rills, and the other on die Crown aid >, from nine in the morning until five in 

day, than anj of out courts in Vir 
i week. i J ^e in Guildhall sitting in court wit 

tea-pot and bread and butter before I . nir his breakfast, while counsel 

i business miglii not be d rhe Judges in England, (there are 

but thirteen for that great K of three counties, that [could 

name, contain mi , and ino wealth, than 

Dominion,) work harder, and arc worse paid than any 
ut. 
How is it with us in Virginia? We find men anxious enough t<> 

t— but ai-e they (in th . d,) as anxious to discharg ' earn the 

.'. j i8 to draw it? Ther , and to my p arable 

but are there not too many instances, it s ar 

hold on t i i > • ; ' • breaking it U P a1 . 1 ' 1 

, to the delay of harassm 

i g- evil? And if th I bj which Ju 

Virginia be c! 
In England, win re two count ' : 

tain more tlian two mil than the 

of Prus ia, sui h 
ted for one hall '• 

■ :' ' . : 

.. ; 

retime to 



•If it had been called after Ids uncle, old • '. of Union Hill, all would 

have cried well done! I 

It 

. i ,rob < ' ■■* ^ nov - ' 

it only 1 • ,,llt obtained 

their confirm tion by 1 h I monarch, 

. 'ul of all Uiat '• kings- 

■ • | ! ' no e • ' ... tenement 



n 

.j. ..'. out what in.- e tisting law is— much less to have ii settled, in the omy way that jit 
ein be settled — by adjudication. Much of this evil has pro'- edi -1 from the Semite, 
at the instance of the author of the Richmond Adams manifesto. I have seen Sir John 
Bay ley try some six or eight criminals in one day, that here would consume the time 
allotted for one, or more than one superior court. It is true, there, law} i rs are only 
admitted to cross-examine the witnesses, and are not suffered to take up a day in frothy 
declamation to mislead the jury. But 1 can concc i\ e of no form of trial more fair than 
thai in England; and the summing up of Sir John Bayli y, (who is indeed counsel for 
the accusi :,) is the most perfect specimen of fairness and clearness and conciseness, 
that I havt ever heard, or can conceive. IK never omits the most minute circum- 
stance that maki s for, or against the prisoner; and, without showing the least bixs, 
either way, Ik never fails to tell the jury that, "if upon the whole they doubt, the 
accused is i ntitl: d to the benefit of that doubt." I cannot go so far as an Irish gen- 
tleman, whom I beard (humorously,) say at Norwich Assizes, "that .t must be a pi u- 
sure io be hanged by Sir J. Bayley;" but 1 take a pleasure, and a pride, too, in here 
running- the honour that I received in his acquaintance, an i that of Lord Chief Justice 
L5 rt, and the very kind attentions and hospitality by which I was distinguished by 
both of th< m, the last more especia'lv. 

The trials that ! speak of were ordinary cases, civil and criminal ; not cases of libel 
and treason — of political law. In England, as in other countries, not excepting Vir- 
ginia, 1 liar that there is always a leaning on the side of the Bench to Power, m 
whatever hands it may be placed. 

Note E, p. 23. — Mr. Madison (I speak it without the slightest disrespect to that 
eminent man,) is a still stronger case, in point, than Mr. Pitt. 

Except Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Jay,* as Secretary of State, he had not, perhaps, 
Ilia equal in our country — his superior no where — a profound thinker, a powerful rea- 
.soner, " with tongue, or pen;" a gTcat civilian, reminding one of his prototype, 
.T< lm Seidell; to whose " Maui: cladsdm" no man was better fitted than Mr. Madi- 
son to have opposed a Mare liuerum Yet, advanced to the helm of affairs, how 

• As Mr. Jay is mentioned, I cannot emit my poor tribute to the example of con- 
summate dignity which i his great and good man h.:s set to every other gT -at man in 
retirement. He lias been withdrawn from public life too long-, [yet even here his er- 
ror leans to virtue's side,] about thirty years. Mho sees, or has seen, his name in a 

vspaper? Usisicomm ' 

suo, vel libertatibus vel liberis consuetudinibus suis, aut utlagetur, ant exulet, ant ali- 
quo modo destruatur, nee super eum ibimus, nee super eum mittemus, nisi per legale 
judicium parium Buorum, v< 1 pi r legem terre. Nulh vend< runs, nulli negabimus aut 
diff< remus rectum vel jnstitiam " — Magna Charta, confirmed 25 Enw. I. 

No free man shall be taken, or imprisoned, or he disseised of his freehold, or liber- 
ties or free custom-, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor we 
will not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgement of bis peers, or 
bv the law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man 
either Justice or Right. 

They put the (h niai and ihljy of justice on the same foot. 

Weil might Lord Chatham, in the greatest of all his incomparable speeches, say oi" 
these precious words, couched in "the rude and simple Latin of the times," that 
Eh< j were " worth all tli • Classics!" "Nolumus leges Angliz mutari" — " We are un- 
willing that the laws of Engla id be changed"— was the answer of those "iron Barons" 
To the Sovereign who wished to introduce the Salic law of the Continent in lieu of the 
English law of descents. This change would have deprived England of two of her 
!■ reigns— those of Elizabeth and Anne. 
The struggle in England.to supersede the free Anglo Sason Institutions by the 
Civil Law, is most hoi to th- manly and successful resistance of OUT ancestors. 

Wherever j ou see a Lawyer, or a Judge, that lean- I trary Power, there you will 

find a disparager of that noblest, because surest and saf< st of all systems of Liberty-- 
the Common' Law; and an advocate for the Civil Law, which is the Code of Despotism. 
And it is not in Engl nd alone that the civil lav. n brought to bear upon c 

under pretence of its being an Admiralty case, " miter of Jflry Trial; . M 

Justice well kno' 



consummate his ignorance of men, let his selections for great offices, civil and mili- 
tary, toll I will enumerate a few, just as they occur to me, beginning with his Cabinet. 

Secretary of State— Robert Smith 

Sectary ofthe Treasury—George W. Campbell: also Minister to St. Petersburg 

Secretary of War— Dr. Eusl t. 

Secretary of th Navy— Paul Hamilton, and Benjamin W. Crowninshield. 

Attorney General— Richard Rush; not being fit for Comptroller, he is selected to 
preside over theTreasurj ! and by the Ricl mond Adams-Convention for Vice President! 

Commander in the Nbrfl west— William Bull. 

Commander in the Northeast— James Wilkinson, and Wade Hampton. 

Commander at Bladensburg-rWjlliam Winder! assisted by "The Flying Cabi 
net," as Wilkinson had the insolence to designate them in his diagram of that famous 
rout. In :his memorable dis-engagement, the Grand Role was played by Mr. A 
ney General, "for that time only," without his hat. Wehaven " Mastei ofthe Rolls' 5 
inourcountrj ; but, like the wi'm authors of the Bolhad, for Sir Ll tyd Kenyon, we 
might take as a motto for Mr. Rush, "Jouez bien votr&rok." And. verily, oever did 
political adventurer make more of his porta, than this solemn gentleman has done 
Never wi re abilities so much below mediocrity so well rewarded; no, not when Cali- 
gula's Norse was made Consul. 

A few days ago I stumbled upon the foil wing stanza of an unfinished poem, onth^. 
Glories and Worthies of om Administration: 

" And as for R — , his early locks of snow, 

Betray the frozen region that's below. 

Though Jove upon the race bestow VI some fire, 

The gift w is all exhaust d by the sire. 

A sage consum'd what thousands well might share. 

And asbbs! only, fell upon the heir"' 

Those lines ..re the only article of the growth, produce, or manufacture, ol 
country north of Patapaco, that i have, knowingly, used sine the Tariff bill pi 
They are by a witty son of a witty sire— as Burns sings, "a true gud<- fellow's get ' 

Note.Y,p. 24.— Mr. Clay took his seat in the House of Representatives* inDecem 
1811; his first Btride was from the door to the chair, where he com .... need to plaj the 
Dictator: he fixed his eyes on the Presidency, and I, who had been twelve y< ars id 
Congress, fixed mine upon him, and have kept 'them tin i - da said that he 

saw many a Marius in Csesar. So I, who had heard Mr. Clay for the first I me in the 
Senate the year before, on the rem wal of the charter of the Rank of the V ited States, 
was persuaded that he would not keep the faith. Without affecting an inferioritj 
I do not fei 1, I may be allowed to say, thai my p s.tion as the guardian ofthe c 
tution and country against the assaults of a man goa U d and blindc '. by his ambition, 
Mould have placed a dwarf on a level with a giant. IK went to Europe, and returned 
a changed man. 

And not Mr. Clay only. Mr. Monroe, the stem Mr. Monroe, for whom G 
Washington's Administration was not Republican ( nough, com* s back after four ; 
spent in Paris, Ma id, and London, to settle points of ttiquetU and invent coai 
term for our foreign ministers— because, forsooth, th \ are not Franklins: U 

i , , i.) So that, like the ting's fool, our envoys must have a party-coloured 

H to make up for 'hen- want of sense and dignitj .— " Motley u your oni 






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